EvanL
07-04-2005, 03:06 PM
Sniper course graduates trained to kill “without warning, without conscience”
As the sun sets, a steady rain falls across the open prairies, blanketing the open fields in murky grey. Over the field in front of me and to the west, I can see a house that we have been conducting surveillance on. My spotter has judged the distance to the target area, a doorframe at 526 meters to the far side of the clearing. Twilight will go fast because of the weather and if the target doesn't appear soon, we will spend another night with the ants and mosquitoes. Suddenly, between the steady vertical grey streaks, several small, dark and moving dots appear around the outside of the house and inside the windows, I look through my 40 power spotting scope and it's my target!
“63 this is 63 Bravo. Priority target number 1 is confirmed. Over.”
“ 63. You have green light. Over.”
“63 Bravo. Roger. Out.”
“Spotter, confirm my shooting data.”
“ Roger that. Barometric pressure at 30.5, humidity: 90%, temperature: 24 degrees Celsius, range to target: 526 meters, elevation: 5 up, 1.5 minutes of angle, wind: 13 Km/H from 2 0'clock, deflection: 3 minutes of angle right and add .5 for spin drift.
“ Roger that. Data is confirmed. Scopes up! Stand by.”
“ Wait, winds up hold, wait… wait… green light.”
“ Stand by.”
“ Send it!”
As the shot rang out, the round hit the target with deadly precision. All the remaining enemy personnel ran for cover and didn't know where to return fire. The sniper team packed up and stealthily moved back 10 kilometres to the rendezvous point and called in for a helicopter extraction, mission complete.
snipers trainingThe WATC Basic Sniper course 0501 recently graduated 12 extremely motivated and highly skilled snipers ready for employment as operational snipers within their battalions. This course started with 18 Snipers on a 2-week selection that ran in Edmonton and on Vancouver Island. Four students were cut, with 14 moving on to the course conducted in Dundurn.
The Sniper course is mentally and physically draining. The requirements for the course are difficult, demanding high standards and zero mistakes. The sniper instructors, through their operational and professional experience, provided in-depth knowledge and guidance to the students throughout the course. The result was a high success rate.
During the course, the students where taught to shoot out to 800 meters with the primary weapon – the C3 .308 calibre sniper rifle – and to engage targets out to 2000 metres with the .50 calibre sniper rifle. As observation is one of the sniper's primary objectives, the students ran through numerous exercises. The use of a laser range finder can lead to detection from the enemy, so the snipers judge distance by using their mil dots in their scope from which they can calculate accurate ranges to targets.
The most challenging part of the course is stalking an enemy observation post. All the stalks where conducted with live ammunition, with the sniper student firing at a metal kill zone-sized target. The stalk was the proof, the mission and end state of their training – all of the combined skills are tested during this portion.
The skills of a sniper are like the legs of a stool: If you place pressure on it and remove one of the legs, it will fail and collapse. If you are not perfect at all the skills – shooting, observation, judging distance and stalking – your mission will fail.
During the field training exercise, sniper students had the opportunity to take part in various missions to which they could be exposed overseas and during operational training. The entire exercise was live-fire, which reinforced the sniper's motto: ONE SHOT ONE KILL. They conducted observation post surveillance, a stalk in three-man teams, an offset shoot where the spotter is separated from the shooter, and a command detonation shoot on a high-priority multiple target area with the Brigade Commander observing. To add to this stress, they where ambushed while returning from a mission. They had to escape and evade enemy forces and dog tracking teams ending with a partisan link up and a final mission issued by the partisan.
The field training exercise was an experience in which the new snipers excelled. Without question these new snipers are ready for any challenge that their battalion's might put to them, whether it's a deployment or exercise.
If you're in the infantry, reconnaissance qualified and think you are up to the challenge, speak with your unit Master Sniper and maybe we will see you next year.
By: Sniper Course 0501 Staff
Photos By: Sgt M. Van den Broek, Army News
http://www.army.dnd.ca/lfwa/Photos/sniper1.jpg
As the sun sets, a steady rain falls across the open prairies, blanketing the open fields in murky grey. Over the field in front of me and to the west, I can see a house that we have been conducting surveillance on. My spotter has judged the distance to the target area, a doorframe at 526 meters to the far side of the clearing. Twilight will go fast because of the weather and if the target doesn't appear soon, we will spend another night with the ants and mosquitoes. Suddenly, between the steady vertical grey streaks, several small, dark and moving dots appear around the outside of the house and inside the windows, I look through my 40 power spotting scope and it's my target!
“63 this is 63 Bravo. Priority target number 1 is confirmed. Over.”
“ 63. You have green light. Over.”
“63 Bravo. Roger. Out.”
“Spotter, confirm my shooting data.”
“ Roger that. Barometric pressure at 30.5, humidity: 90%, temperature: 24 degrees Celsius, range to target: 526 meters, elevation: 5 up, 1.5 minutes of angle, wind: 13 Km/H from 2 0'clock, deflection: 3 minutes of angle right and add .5 for spin drift.
“ Roger that. Data is confirmed. Scopes up! Stand by.”
“ Wait, winds up hold, wait… wait… green light.”
“ Stand by.”
“ Send it!”
As the shot rang out, the round hit the target with deadly precision. All the remaining enemy personnel ran for cover and didn't know where to return fire. The sniper team packed up and stealthily moved back 10 kilometres to the rendezvous point and called in for a helicopter extraction, mission complete.
snipers trainingThe WATC Basic Sniper course 0501 recently graduated 12 extremely motivated and highly skilled snipers ready for employment as operational snipers within their battalions. This course started with 18 Snipers on a 2-week selection that ran in Edmonton and on Vancouver Island. Four students were cut, with 14 moving on to the course conducted in Dundurn.
The Sniper course is mentally and physically draining. The requirements for the course are difficult, demanding high standards and zero mistakes. The sniper instructors, through their operational and professional experience, provided in-depth knowledge and guidance to the students throughout the course. The result was a high success rate.
During the course, the students where taught to shoot out to 800 meters with the primary weapon – the C3 .308 calibre sniper rifle – and to engage targets out to 2000 metres with the .50 calibre sniper rifle. As observation is one of the sniper's primary objectives, the students ran through numerous exercises. The use of a laser range finder can lead to detection from the enemy, so the snipers judge distance by using their mil dots in their scope from which they can calculate accurate ranges to targets.
The most challenging part of the course is stalking an enemy observation post. All the stalks where conducted with live ammunition, with the sniper student firing at a metal kill zone-sized target. The stalk was the proof, the mission and end state of their training – all of the combined skills are tested during this portion.
The skills of a sniper are like the legs of a stool: If you place pressure on it and remove one of the legs, it will fail and collapse. If you are not perfect at all the skills – shooting, observation, judging distance and stalking – your mission will fail.
During the field training exercise, sniper students had the opportunity to take part in various missions to which they could be exposed overseas and during operational training. The entire exercise was live-fire, which reinforced the sniper's motto: ONE SHOT ONE KILL. They conducted observation post surveillance, a stalk in three-man teams, an offset shoot where the spotter is separated from the shooter, and a command detonation shoot on a high-priority multiple target area with the Brigade Commander observing. To add to this stress, they where ambushed while returning from a mission. They had to escape and evade enemy forces and dog tracking teams ending with a partisan link up and a final mission issued by the partisan.
The field training exercise was an experience in which the new snipers excelled. Without question these new snipers are ready for any challenge that their battalion's might put to them, whether it's a deployment or exercise.
If you're in the infantry, reconnaissance qualified and think you are up to the challenge, speak with your unit Master Sniper and maybe we will see you next year.
By: Sniper Course 0501 Staff
Photos By: Sgt M. Van den Broek, Army News
http://www.army.dnd.ca/lfwa/Photos/sniper1.jpg